HedgeCo.net — NEW YORK, CHICAGO, June 11, 2007 – Asset Alliance Corporation, a global leader in alternative investments, today announced the launch of an SEC registered managed futures fund-of-funds– the BTOP50 Managed Futures Fund (BTOP50) — at the Managed Funds Association (MFA) Conference in Chicago.
BTOP50 is derived from managers that are included in, and is representative of, the industry benchmark, the Barclay CTA Index. Currently, the fund will allocate to 23 of the industry’smost established commodity trading advisor (CTA) programs and is designed to provide investors with access to a diversified and non-correlating group of managed futures strategies.
Leading CTA managers that are expected to be in the fund include Kaiser, Winton Capital Management, Armajaro and FX Concepts.
“Managed futures provide diversification and an attractive, uncorrelated return stream in a well diversified portfolio,” said Bruce Lipnick, president and chief executive officer of AssetAlliance.
“This vehicle fills a gap in investors’ portfolios and we are proud to make an institutional grade product available in an affordable and flexible format for retail markets.”
The fund is the first of a group of products that will be marketed worldwide to a broad base of qualified investors through broker dealers, private banks, wealth managers, RIAs and independentfinancial intermediaries. Asset Alliance has simplified the marketing process and designed a proprietary method to process subscriptions electronically.
The introduction of the electronically transacted managed futures fund (ETMF) is believed to be the first of its kind, and the unique fund structure provides a year-end simplified 1099 that makes itpossible to include the BTOP50 in established asset allocation models.
The BTOP50 should also be popular with institutional investors who can now allocate to a diversified pool of world class CTAs in a cost effective transparent format.
“Asset Alliance has taken a thorough, thoughtful and consultative approach in creating this vehicle and I think they have done a great job at building an optimal way for investors to get exposure tomany hard to access strategies and funds,” said Sol Waksman, president of Barclay Research Group.
A team of 21 employees at Asset Alliance, led by Thomas Broadbent, Garry Collins and Elliot Noma, oversees the BTOP50 initiative, including active risk management, ongoing manager monitoring andselection, sales and marketing, and support to intermediary channels.
Barclay Research Group is the industry’s premier provider of Commodity Trading Advisor performance data and managed futures analytics. Established in 1986, the Barclay CTA Index represents morethan 85% of the total assets in global managed futures as measured by Barclay’s universe of managed futures programs.
Asset Alliance Corporation, founded in 1996 and headquartered in New York, is a privately held company that assists and invests in diversified alternative asset management firms, and providesspecialized alternative investment products and services to institutions and high-net-worth individuals. London-based Asset Alliance International, Ltd. continues to expand the firm’s globalpresence through manager research, joint ventures and the development and distribution of specialized products throughout Europe, Asia and the Middle East. For more information please visitwww.assetalliance.com.
Sophie Sophaon l Walek & Associates l Office: 212.590.0522 l Cell: 202.270.4870 l ssophaon@walek.com
